Dead Internet Theory - Tumblr Posts

prediction: everyone starts reading and going to libraries for research again because literally nobody asked for this AI bullshit

While I would say the bot problem on [tumblr] has gotten substantially worse (and more real-on-first-glance), I would have to say that the bot problem everywhere has become untenable. The "Dead Internet theory", the once-conspiracy (but no longer) theory that the activity and creation of bots has likely supplanted a vast majority of internet usage, has absolutely taken over. This effect didn't start with LLMs such as OpenAI, but they certainly exasperated the issue. This can be seen as a benefit, where as more people realize that this is how it will be moving forward with no end, the more people will stop using the internet as a scapegoat of activity as a 'cure' for boredom. There is a human need for human-created activity, and when you see beyond the veil that more and more activity and comments, and replies, and posts are automated, you will likely feel less 'included' in any culture, and become more of an independent person outside of the internet.

As less naturally created culture is produced, the less people will use the internet to solve their boredom issues, the more they will focus inwards and create art that isn't tied to artificially increased activity metrics. This is where the positive of a dead internet is created, that less consumption of other material due to the addiction created matrix and prison of analytics that has sequestered a large portion of the entire human race as a species within the last twenty years.

Funny enough, the amount of time to imprison the entire populace of human civilization into services that demean their value as an independent agent took less than an entire generation. Looking at it from afar, that is truly astounding.

The major upside to this, is that this will transform the internet from a model and service engine from an analytical prison for the individual, back into the original intent of the internet, as a superhighway for data transportation. This helps the internet turn itself back into a utility, and not as a toy to relieve momentary boredom.

The downside to the emboldened dead internet is that there is now a distinct possibility that culture is dead, that the usage of bots that can number in the hundreds of thousands at creation with distinct generated personalities will lead to an increased paranoia of 'reality', and lead to more disenfranchised real thought from real people, and relinquish thought control and idea propagation to a handful of powerful observers who game the system. If this sounds familiar, that's because we are already living within that system. Both of these are happening, both of these will continue to happen, and there really is no path forward without either of these happening.

To put simply, the creation of the dead internet, is likely a net-positive to the destruction of the individual (artificially inflated) data analytic creation prison, but equally is a negative to the destruction of any sense of democracy as a culture, and relinquishes control of original propulsion of ideas to unknown actors.

The other benefit is that this will result in the internet at large to become less 'social' and more as a utility, something that I believe could be a major net positive for the development of humanity towards a post society defined less by walls and more towards inward individualism and local community creation. This can be a benefit, but this can also be its own problem by disconnecting individuals from others of similar natural ideas, disenfranchising minority experiences, and yet again the problems repeats back to an increased paranoia of "what is real", "who is real", and what is a "universal experience" if so many 'bots' can supplant the vast majority of activity.

A news site called WindowsCentral just posted a headline: "57% of all content on the web is AI-generated."

They're misquoting a Forbes article that said, "57% of all text-based content on the web is AI-generated."

Which itself was also a misquote of a study saying "57% of all text translations on the web are machine generated."

Figured I should give everyone a heads up

for all the "OMG dead Internet theory is real!" posting coming up.

dead internet theory

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